Welcome to the Dispatch!
by The Dangerous One
Summary: What happens when there will be a string of mysterious deaths in a boarding school that even the Reapers don't know much about? It's time to bring in a specialist. OC Stella Darling is coming from America to attend the school and see what's going on while the others pose as teachers and her guardians to solve the mystery. Rated T for safety and the possibility of a Truth or Dare.


**(A.N. More plot bunny indulgences! Updates will be spotty, I have a squillion and a half other stories going... I have to get this out, though! Anyway, it's a modern AU, mostly third person POV, with my OC Stella Darling, whose personality is mostly based on mine. It's post-Musical 2, but Eric and Alan are still alive. I mean come on! They're too cute to be dead, right? Right?! The Darling joke originated in Blackadder, by the way, but my grandmother was named Stella and I always liked her name.)****  
**Standard Disclaimers Apply

William nodded and said "Yes, I understand." into the phone he was holding before putting down the receiver. He sighed, pushed up his glasses, and stood up. "Sutcliff, Knox, Humphries, and Slingby: please meet with me in Conference Room Three." he said, his voice raised so everyone could hear. Once his division had gathered in the conference room, Will cleared his throat and began to address his co-workers.  
"Everyone, I have just been informed that we will be getting a new member-" Eric broke in, "Yes! That means less work for us!" and Ronald, "And less work means less overtime!" Will tried to restore order. "Not necessarily. If I hear that you've given her all of your work to do-" "It's a chick?" "Finally! I won't be the only woman in the division anymore!" "You never were a woman in the first place, Sutcliff. Anyway, I want Knox and Humphries to go pick her up from the airport-" "She's from overseas?" "Is she hot?" "Why can't I go, Willykins?" "Which country is she from?"

Alan seemed to be the only one taking the task seriously. "Of course, Mr. Spears. What does she look like and which airport will she be at?" Will gave him a file marked 'New Personnel'. "The details are in here. She will be arriving at London Heathrow airport in fifteen minutes. I suggest that you and Knox make your way over there shortly so she isn't kept waiting."

Twenty minutes later, Ronald and Alan were at the airport waiting for the newbie. The flight, it turned out, had been delayed in Chicago, Illinois because of fog.

Thirty minutes later: nothing yet.

Forty minutes later: still nothing.

Finally, after an hour had passed and the late flight had shown up. Five minutes later, a young girl approached the two reapers with red and black baggage in tow. She didn't look more than sixteen years old, but she had glasses that looked like Reaper glasses and she had the same two-toned iris, but hers were a light gray (almost silver) ringed with a deep blue. Ronald smiled slightly, noting that Will probably wouldn't approve of the clothing she was wearing. Ripped jeans, Converse sneakers, and a rather low-cut short-sleeved shirt seemed more like what Grell would wear to work if he could get away with it. The girl grinned, taking out her bright red earbuds, and asked "Are you two Ronald and Alan? I was told to meet you here." Yep, definitely the newbie. Her American accent stuck out a mile. Well, this was unexpected...  
Alan was the first to recover. "Yes. I am Alan Humphries and this is Ronald Knox. You must be the new recruit from overseas." The girl stuck out her hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Alan and Ronald. I'm Stella Darling." she said, with either a twitch in her eye or she was winking at Ronald.  
The taxi ride back to the office was decidedly awkward, what with Ronald and Stella in the backseat flirting with each other when Stella wasn't looking out the window at different landmarks and buildings that had been put up for the Olympics a few months previously. They found out that Stella was from Virginia originally before moving to San Francisco, once tried to swim to Alcatraz, loved Halloween, and had been 'in the business' (so to speak) since before the Revolution.

Despite all the negative American stereotypes that Alan and Ronald had been expecting, Stella seemed like an intelligent, normal, polite girl that just happened to be about 300 years old. When it came to her clothes, social life, and music tastes however, Stella was all teen and more than a little strange. She had the new iPhone, Mac laptop, and was on most of the supernatural social networking sites, as well as a few human ones, but while they were waiting at a light her phone started blasting the chorus of 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton. Stella blushed and when she picked up, they found out that it was Will, wondering where they were. "Y'ello? ...Yeah, we're on our way, Mr. Spears," she said apologetically, "My flight was delayed in Chicago. ...I see. Y'ok. ...'Bye, Mr. Spears." After she hung up, Stella said "Y'ok, apparently we were supposed to be at the Dispatch almost an hour ago. The way Mr. Spears said it, it was almost as if he thought you had taken me to a bar or something... Sorry, guys." Ronald grinned. "It's okay. You should have seen this morning! Sutcliff-senpai didn't come in until noon today, and Will's dragged him in later than that a few times!"

When they finally got to the Dispatch, Will had come down to the lobby of the main building to greet them. "Hello, Darling, I presume. I am William T. Spears, and your new manager. Welcome both to England and the Reaper Dispatch Association." Stella's eye twitched again at the mention of her last name, but she quickly smiled again. "It's a pleasure to be here, Mr. Spears. I'll try my hardest to work efficiently." Will's mouth twitched into a thin smile, despite his obvious disapproval of her clothing. "You might find that hard workers are a rare breed in the division, try as I might..." And with that, the quartet headed upstairs to their office.  
In the time that Will had spent going downstairs, talking to Stella, Ronald, and Alan, and coming back upstairs, Grell had managed to find his old 8-track tape player that Will had confiscated and put into a locked drawer in his desk, cleaned out a cubicle for Stella, decorated it, and was blasting _Don't Fear The Reaper_ by Blue Öyster Cult. Instead of cringing like Alan was, or twitching like Will was, Stella's eyes widened, she grinned, and started looking for the source of the music. "Whoever you are, you're awesome!" she yelled, and Grell came out of his cubicle. "Why, thank you darling~! I love your shirt~ Red is such a good color on you!"  
"Well, they're going to get along fine," Eric commented,watching the two chat about this, that, and the other. "But why did the higher-ups feel the need to bring in another Reaper from overseas? I thought we were doing just fine with the five of us." Will's eyebrow twitched. "If you had read the report I left on your desk, you would know that there are going to be several deaths within a secondary school quite soon. As of yet, we do not know the cause of death, and because of that, we needed somebody to go stake out the school, so to speak. Our own work keeps us fairly busy, and none of us appear school-age. Stella will be posing as an exchange student from America while keeping an eye out for any demons."  
"That's a pretty good plan, senpai! Nice job thinking it up." Ronald said, before asking "But what do we do and where is she going to stay? Because between you and me," he lowered his voice "I wouldn't trust her with Grell and Eric and Alan make the most of their privacy, if you know what I mean." Will relaxed his face a bit. (A.N. I would say 'smiled' with anybody else, but Will doesn't smile! DX) "That is not a problem. The Harefield Academy is a boarding school in Hillingdon. She will live in one of the dorms. Alan and Eric will be posing as new teachers, you will be posing as another new student, and Grell and I," Will said with a slight shudder "Will be posing as Darling's host family." At this, Grell squealed something about finally getting together with his one true love and Stella asked "So, when do I start?"

**(A.N. This has been nibbling at the back of my mind for quite a while now, and I intend to keep updating this at least once a week, like it says on my profile, but I need your help! I live in the US, and if anyone lives in the UK or knows about the British education system, _please let me know_! I won't be able to update until I get a clue on what goes on. As a reminder, I have anonymous reviews on for a reason~! The Harefield Academy really is a boarding school in Hillingdon, but that's all I know about it. If you know what the campus looks like or what it's like in the dorms, please review or PM me about it. If you do, I'll send you a virtual chocolate lover's dream cookie: chocolate batter with Reese's Pieces and m&ms in it with a mini Rollo on top!)**


End file.
